Establishing the Single Market and Customs Programme for the period 2028-2034

PURPOSE: to establish the Single Market and Customs Programme for the period 2028-2034

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: as part of the second package of programmes under the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for the 2028-2034 period, on 3 September 2025, the Commission issued its proposal to consolidate four predecessor funding instruments within a new Single Market and Customs Programme covering the Single Market, Customs Union, Taxation and Anti-Fraud. The programme will also cover the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

The programme builds on findings and lessons learned from the finalised and ongoing evaluations of its predecessor programmes. Merging the four existing programmes into one single programme will improve the consistency and integration of actions in the respective policy areas. At the same time, it will reduce the number of divergent and fragmented financing rules and will streamline the implementation.

This proposal sets out the legal basis for the Single Market and Customs programme for the period 2028-2034.

CONTENT: the proposed regulation would establish the Single Market and Customs programme for the period 2028-2034. The scope of the programme covers the area of the Single Market and cooperation between national administrations in a comprehensive manner.

General objective

The general objective of the programme is to enhance and deepen the functioning of a competitive Single Market and a strong Customs Union, to protect the financial and economic interests and security, safety of the Union and its Member States, with a design fostering flexibility, simplification and synergies, and supporting the Union’s horizontal policy mainstreaming priorities.

Specific objectives

- to empower citizens, consumers, investors, economic operators and businesses by providing information, guidance and advice enabling them to make informed decisions and to fully access the opportunities of the Single Market for goods, people, services and capital, to improve related digital and financial literacy, to ensure access to redress mechanisms, by supporting representative organisations in their participative role; to improve the understanding of the Single Market and its challenges by supporting data collection and acquisition activities, analyses and tools;

- to foster cooperation among Member States national authorities, and between Member States national authorities, the Commission and other Union bodies in all programme areas, including the preparedness and economic security of the Single Market, and response to crises, to design, deploy, implement, run, maintain and support the common components of Union-level digital solutions and support the connection to them, and to boost the operational, technical and administrative capacities of national authorities, including customs and tax authorities;

- to facilitate harmonised standard-setting and reinforce the development of European and international standards, to ensure the effective design, uniform interpretation and implementation as well as the enforcement of Union law and monitoring of market fragmentation risk, also in relation with the verification of the conformity with the EU acquis by acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates;

- to support the Customs Union and customs authorities working together and acting as one in achieving their mission and contributing to Europe’s economic security, to ensure an effective market surveillance and a high level of consumer protection, product conformity and safety;

- to protect the Union’s and its Member States’ economic, financial and other interests from fraud, corruption and other illegal activities, including risks related to expenditure, revenue and assets, as well as reputational risks, support Member States’ operational cooperation and investigation activities; to support tax policy and implementation of Union law relating to taxation and improve the Union taxation systems and tax collection in view of enhancing Europe’s competitiveness and investments;

- to improve evidence-based and digital-ready policymaking, and the use of digital implementation tools, as well as mutualisation of public data, to support the specific objectives set out above;

- to provide relevant and comparable official European statistics.

Budgetary implications

This regulation contains a budgetary framework of EUR 6.238 million (in current prices) for the period 2028-2034.